St. Patrick's Day gig... Which songs?

[Mr-Wunderful]

The Wild Rover
Whiskey in the Jar
Dirty Old Town

 

[Luke19Boarder]

i think dropkick murphy's are irish....

i recommend "kiss me I'm @#$%faced"

 

[Jayhawk]

Flogging Molly's cover of the Tom Jones classic "Delilah" is a great choice. A local Irish Pub Rock band plays it all the time & really gets the crowd into it. Here's a vid of Flogging Molly playing it (it's also on their live album):

 

[Jehos]

Go get the Dropkick Murphys album "Sing Loud, Sing Proud". Almost all of those songs are Irish drinking songs adapted to the Murphys style. Pick 3, make them your own.

 

[Bobaree]

Black Velvet Band
The Irish Rover
Black and Tans

 

[strummer21]

Anything by the Pogues, suggestions in addition to the others:

White City
Streams of Whiskey
Bottle of Smoke
Body of an American

 

[excane]

+1 on Dropkick Murphy's

"I'm Shipping up to Boston"

 

[TrevorOfDoom]

anything by U2, though something with a distinctly Irish connection would be better. (i.e. Sunday Bloody Sunday)
anything by Thin Lizzy.
The Pogues
Flogging Molly.
also, while we're on the subject...
Invalid Link Removed

 

[::::BASSIST::::]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

Should the band get a regular gig's rate or do should we get more money since its St. Patrick's Day?

.

 

[txbasschik]

Do y'all have a female singer, or can you get a good one for a song or three?

'Cause then you could do "The Dirty Glass", which is a kick@$$ song!!!

Cherie

 

[txbasschik]

If St. Pat's is a huge deal up there, you should get more money, sortof like New Year's, but prolly not quite as much.

Cherie

 

[BioDriver]

i recommend "kiss me I'm @#$%faced"

+1

Also, "Devil's Dance Floor" by Flogging Molly

 

[excane]

If St. Pat's is a huge deal up there, you should get more money, sortof like New Year's, but prolly not quite as much.

Cherie

I'm curious to know as well how it is in Canada....st. patty's day is HUGE here in NYC as well as Boston (probably even more so)

 

[crijan]

+1 on "The Wild Rover", can't believe I forgot that one.

Also +1 on it depends on how popular St. Patty's day is in your area. Here in Dallas it's for some reason a crazy big deal. I have several friends that own or manage bars and they say they make their entire rent for the year just on St. Patty's day.

 

[The Universe]

"We all dream of a team of Gary Breen's..."

Umm, serious suggestion...

Rocky Road to Dublin (trad...check out The Irish Descendants for a VERY cool version)

And yes you should get paid more if they're asking for a specific type of music for a specific event.

 

[Dfinch]

+1 on Dropkick Murphy's

"I'm Shipping up to Boston"

+1 to Dropkick Murphy's and this song.

 

[jambassist]

I'm one of the biggest fans of Flogging Molly and DKM on this board, but why not try something different for this show? Instead of doing the same songs every other band is doing, try some of these songs that aren't played that often:

1. The Broad Black Brimmer
2. The Boys Of the Old Brigade
3. A Nation Once Again
4. Oro Sé do Bheatha Bhaile

The last one there will require that you learn to sing it in Irish, but it's not a hard as you think. Sinead O'Conner does a funky/soulful version of this song which you can find on youtube. There's also a fine version by the Dubliners on there too. The first three were made popular by the WolfeTones.

Point is these are all solid Republican songs worthy of a St. Patrick's day show. If you're playing in an Irish type pub, these songs will work and get the crowd going.

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig!!!​

 

[ko stradivarius]

I play in an Irish band and were getting pretty busy for obvious reasons.
My favorite right now is "what's left of the flag" from Flogging Molly. Not sure why its that one over all the others, but it is.

 

[Lesfunk]

Gary Owen, The Unicorn Song, When Irish Eyes are Smiling.

+1 go trad on them. works every time

 

[coop]

Some I didn't see listed (sorry if I missed them)

• All for me grog
• O Danny Boy
• Do virgins taste better?

The thing about Irish songs is you can learn the structure, and then play dozens of them, just change the lyrics. I subbed for a band that printed out the lyrics to the chorus, and them left them on all of the tables. Nothing quite like a bar full of people singing along with you. If you do the youtube thing, look up Ri Ra they play at an Irish pub in the NewYork casino in Las Vegas.

As far as asking for more money, my answer is almost always YES on any special occasion.However, last time I did St. Patty's day, I made more in tips than I did with the split afterwards. As always, IMO, IME, YMMV.